Random thoughts, observations and animadversions.

Random thoughts, observations and animadversions.

- For reasons that have never been entirely clear to me, presidential candidates have been required to know how much a loaf of bread or a half gallon of milk costs. Apparently, this knowledge was required to prove that a candidate was still in touch with the common man.
This has never made a great deal of sense to me. I was somewhat more concerned when George W. Bush could not recall the full name of the newly elected president of Taiwan in 2000 or who was the military dictator of Pakistan was. But, in his defense, he was not making grandiose proclamations about China policy.
Nevertheless, the press roasted him. His other transgressions included calling Greeks "Grecians," and Kosovars "Kosovians." Not a single eyebrow was raised when Al Gore referred to Bosnians as "Bosniacs."
It was therefore no surprise that the press pretended not to notice when leftwing darling, Howard Dean could not answer the very straightforward questions about our military force structure posed to him by Meet the Press host Tim Russert. He had not the vaguest notion of how many men were in uniform, guessing that there were somewhere around one and two million. Dean whined, on air that, expecting him to know that was like, "asking me who the ambassador to Rwanda is."
The difference is that, Howard Dean has been pontificating about military policy. Indeed, he has made opposition to Bush's military policy the centerpiece of his campaign. Will he ever be held accountable? I don't know. You may as well ask a Bosniac.
- In any event, Howard Dean has exerted a great influence upon the rest of the Democratic field. Barely known outside his barely known state, the former governor of Vermont has catapulted to double digit support among the 9 person Democratic field of presidential contenders. His eighteen or nineteen percent is the envy of most of the field. Only John Kerry, the French-looking senator from Massachusetts and Connecticut's US Senator Joe Lieberman share his perch. As such, these other candidates are trying to outflank Dean on the left and the entire democratic field has grown more shrilly critical of George Bush's foreign policy, even calling him a liar for accusing Saddam Hussein of pursuing weapons of indiscriminate slaughter.
But, he still only commands about a fifth of the vote. Are the Democrats willing to abandon the center to compete with Howard Dean's kooks? It sure seems so.
- Speaking of those ephemeral weapons, one has to make quite a considerable leap of faith to believe Saddam over George W. Bush. To believe that there were no weapons programs, one has to believe that Saddam harassed and eventually chased the UN inspectors out of his country so that he could destroy his existing arsenals and eliminate his WMD-making infrastructure with nobody noticing. I'm not quite ready to believe that even Saddam was that irrational.
- I saw a picture of the French-looking John F. Kerry the other day at a Des Moines political rally. He was riding a Harley Davidson motorcycle without a helmet. I'd like to see George W. Bush do that, so I could hear the press castigate him for setting a bad example for children.
- The French-looking North Korean dictator Kim Jong Ill won reelection recently with 100% of the vote. As I recall, the last dictator to win 100% of the vote had a career change shortly thereafter.
- Why isn't CNN trumpeting Kim's unanimous reelection as enthusiastically as it celebrated Saddam Hussein's?
- It's not as if they've learned anything. After admitting that they had tailored their news coverage of Iraq to mollify the Ace of Spades, the Clueless News Network admitted that it had been less than aggressive in covering the unrest in Iran, for the purpose of mollifying the mullahs.
- One bit of news that did not get nearly the coverage it deserved was a story from Oberlin, Ohio. Black parents were furious that a white teacher might be assigned to teach black history at Oberlin High School. How would the New York Times react if white parents complained about a black teacher teaching European history? I suspect the reaction would be less tolerant.
It's all part of the lowered expectations that liberals have for blacks in the first place.